Any experiences of Guardian Conservatory Roofs please?

cyclonebri1

Furts wrote: »

Bri is a wise fellow, and needs a pat on the back. I let MidlandAmigos post go by me shaking my head, with alarm bells ringing, but thinking, for many, ignorance is bliss.

There is a huge flaw here. The typical scenario is the original conservatory was a short life, flimsy, low cost construction, It was totally unregulated, it was not inspected, it was not controlled. It had a light weight poly carbonate roof, sitting on lightweight unreinforced window profiles.

Now somebody has plonked a heavy roof onto the conservatory - time will tell if stands muster. But bear in mind the original conservatory had a guarantee (hopefully). This could be 10 years. It is a certainty if anybody plonks a Guardian Roof on their conservatory within the guarantee period, the guarantee is automatically void.

I am pleased Midland Amigos is happy. I could not justify blowing £8000 on such a roof, but we all have different levels of disposable income.

He might be a wise guy but he's made the mug of himself by speed reading. :o

I read Guardian as Centurion, whowever the irony is that my view/advice still holds water

Alan_May

I have been in the industry for 38 years and can offer really good advice and am happy to FOC.
Firstly, there is amazing glass available now which reflects 83% of the suns heat and has a U-value of 0.9. What this means is that your conservatory will not be too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter and you will have a beautiful 'feel good' room, for year round use. The glass is Celsius.
Solid roofs are great and do the job but they are dark and will make the room off the conservatory incredibly dark.
Every other room in your house has a solid roof so to have a conservatory with a high specification glass roof adds a magnificent room with a difference, to your home. Anyone who has a room like this will say 'we live in there'. The reason for this is that it is natural for the human being to be drawn to the light and sun. Most of us hate the winter months and some get very depressed during this period. To have a room where you can be virtually sat outside all year round can make a huge difference to your quality of life. During the winter months we have wonderfully sunny days. You are never likely to regret having a Celsius glass roof to be able to enjoy the view through the roof whether that be the clouds flitting by during the day or the stars and moon at night.

Davesnave

The points you make are those that made me choose a conservatory with this glass, but a further point I'd add is that very good ventilation is also vital. It can't take the place of that.

Our previous conservatory, now demolished, was a horrible, leaky thing, but it's one virtue was the ability to achieve a good throughput of air. It faced south and there were few days when we couldn't use it, even at lunch time.

Cheesecake4242

I am considering a solid conservatory roof. Already I am confused. There seems to be two methods of doing it; Guardian/Supalute use an aluminium ring beam system and companies such as Sentinal use solely wood. Can anyone offer me any advice?

jasper_chumley

Can anybody help, that already has a roof replaced by a guardian roof. Is it worth the money?

Jannalouise

I have been doing a load of research into this.


My FIL had a guardian roof fitted last year and is very pleased with result, and can use the room all year round. I would say it was quite expensive, but we still decided to get the local approved fitter round to quote for ours which is probably 3 times the size. The quote wasn't as much as I thought it might be, but again a substantial amount of money to me.


I also had a quote for a superlite roof, which was a little cheaper.


I also had a national glazing/conservatory quote for replacing our existing polycarb roof with solar glass. The cost substantially more than the "tiled" roof option and they wouldn't touch any of my existing windows, telling me that if wanted them replacing then I would need to have a whole new conservatory.


Finally I had a local builder/window company quote for an orangery roof. This was also in the same price bracket as the "tiled" roof option.


We have decided to go with a superlite orangery roof, which will give us the best of both world in terms of a tiled roof, with thermally efficient glass in the lantern, which will keep the room light and airy. This will cost the same as having a standard "tiled" roof.


Sorry for the long post, but I thought I would share my experience thus far. I think my advice should anyone wish to take it(!) is to get different companies around to discuss what they can do for you. Also AVOID any company that will build a structure around your existing conservatory roof (which, as I understand, the guardian/superlite structures do not do) as there are so many horror stories regarding what can go wrong with them.


Hope this helps someone